1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an architecture and methods for a communication receiver to adjust consumed power according to the received signal condition, and more particularly to techniques and algorithms for controlling receiver performance and power consumption as a function of a number of receive signal factors.
2. Description of the Related Art
Communication systems typically face a range of signal conditions, including communication channel quality as well as the transmitted modulation scheme and code rate which may vary with time and make the desired signal easier or harder to receive. These different conditions require different levels of performance for satisfactory reception of the signal; in well-designed systems, higher performance generally requires more power consumption. Conventional communication systems do not account for these variations by trading off power consumption for system performance when the signal becomes easier to receive. In fact, the minimum performance of the system required to receive the desired signal (“minimum required performance”, or MRP) can vary quite a bit, depending on the aforementioned characteristics.
U.S. patents and a U.S. patent application relating to the present invention are:
U.S. Pat. No. 7,457,607 (Krivokapic) teaches minimization of mobile station power consumption through dynamic optimization of amplifier linearity and frequency synthesizer single sideband phase noise across a wide range of input signal levels and gain settings.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,229,021 (Pärssinen et al.) describes an apparatus, a method and an algorithm for controlling the dynamic range of a radio receiver. The invention provides a monitoring circuit and associated logic to control the dynamic range of a radio receiver based on several parameters making it possible to continuously optimize the receiver performance.
U.S. Patent Application 2008/0080597 (Rofougaran) teaches a radio transceiver that optimizes power consumption by selectively attenuated interferers. Optimizing power consumption involves comparing the transmit power level with two or three thresholds. Depending on the outcome, the blocking circuit is either disabled, enabled or the system increases the linearity of the low noise amplifier, the blocking circuit and other parameters.
It should be noted that none of the above-cited examples of the related art provide the advantages of the below described invention.